Disclosed embodiments may be suited for a transition duct system configured so that a first stage of stationary airfoils (vanes) in the turbine section of the engine is eliminated, and where the hot working gases exiting the transition duct are conveyed directly to a row of rotating airfoils (blades) with high tangential velocity. In such cases, the transition duct system accomplishes the task of redirecting the gases, which would otherwise have been accomplished by a first row of turbine vanes. One example of a transition duct system having such a configuration is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,276,389, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.